Capcom Didn't Want to Make Dead Rising, Lost Planet

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Former Capcom executive Keiji Inafune reveals two hit series were originally denied development.

By Richard George

The Dead Rising and Lost Planet franchises would not exist if Capcom executives had their way. This comes from former Capcom Global Head of Production Keiji Inafune, who is still speaking about his time with the company more than six months after quitting.

According to Adriasang, Inafune hosted a seminar at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. During his speech, the Mega Man creator and former head of Capcom game development discussed the resistance new ideas faced within the company. Inafune cited a rule from management that required 70 to 80% of game production to focus on sequels. Despite that leaving some room for original concepts, Inafune mentioned the reality was most new ideas were denied anyway.

You weren't supposed to buy this game.

Fortunately for Inafune, budgets for development of game concepts and full games were separate. To transition from one category to the next required approval, so when two games, Dead Rising and Lost Planet, were not green lit to become full games, Inafune kept his teams working on the "concepts." Eventually, despite Rising and Planet running 400% over their prototype budget, Inafune was approved to finish work on the games, mostly because they were so far along anyway.

Inafune mentioned he could have been reprimanded for his sneaky tactics had the games not sold well, but we all know that's not the case. Factoring in overseas markets, each series has sold millions of copies. Still, it's interesting to think that two of Capcom's biggest modern successes almost didn't make it off the drawing board.